The Wall Street Journal applauds a new chapter of shareholder engagement. “After two decades of disappointing market performance, some Japanese institutional investors finally appear ready to reinvent themselves as advocates of higher shareholder returns and improved corporate governance.” The catalyst for the story is the new fund being established by Tokio Marine Asset Management Co. and U.K.-based investment group Governance for Owners LLP (GO), which represents several large overseas pension funds. Beginning in April, the new fund will invest up to 100 billion yen in 10-30 small- and mid-cap companies with the aim of improving governance at the firms. In contrast to Steel Partners and other highly publicized activists of recent years, the new venture seeks to raise long-term value using a Japanese approach to engagement through dialogue.

“Brutality and persecution” allowed Muammar Qaddafi to hold power for 41 years. The Economist hopes that his reign will finally end, yet fears “that even now Mr Qaddafi will somehow clamber over the bodies littering the streets to seize back the power that has slipped away from him.”

In the UK, just 12.5% of FTSE 100 board positions are filled by women. Lord Davies is recommending the government take measures to double this figure by 2015. The measures will likely be non-binding, rather than the rigid quota systems adopted by Norway, France and Spain. The Financial Times urges companies to “take voluntary targets seriously,” calling on the chairmen of all-male boards to “explain in their annual report why they find this acceptable” and on investors to “press male, middle-aged boards.”

In the UK, just 12.5% of FTSE 100 board positions are filled by women. Lord Davies is recommending the government take measures to double this figure by 2015. The measures will likely be non-binding, rather than the rigid quota systems adopted by Norway, France and Spain. The Financial Times urges companies to “take voluntary targets seriously,” calling on the chairmen of all-male boards to “explain in their annual report why they find this acceptable” and on investors to “press male, middle-aged boards.”

New Zealand’s deadly earthquake may be the most costly natural disaster to strike insurers since 2008. A JPMorgan Chase analyst has estimated insured losses at $12 billion, the most since a $19.9 billion loss from Hurricane Ike. The quake which rocked Christchurch, New Zealand’s second largest city, would also rank as the seventh most costly natural disaster insurers have faced since 1970.

New Zealand’s deadly earthquake may be the most costly natural disaster to strike insurers since 2008. A JPMorgan Chase analyst has estimated insured losses at $12 billion, the most since a $19.9 billion loss from Hurricane Ike. The quake which rocked Christchurch, New Zealand’s second largest city, would also rank as the seventh most costly natural disaster insurers have faced since 1970.

Mayor Bloomberg has proposed a budget for New York City which cuts 6,000 teachers, 20 fire stations, 100 senior centers, 8% of library funding, 11% of the parks and recreation budget, and 17,000 child-care options for low-income working parents. The proposed $65.6 billion budget is “less painful than expected,” largely due to the unexpectedly rapid recovery of Wall Street. “The city looks in better shape than we expected, even a few weeks ago.”

In 1997, IBM’s Deep Blue supercomputer beat World Chess Champion Garry Kasparov in a six-game match. Last week, IBM’s latest supercomputer Watson beat two contestants on the highly colloquial American game show Jeopardy. Is the “age of the neuron” over? The Boston Globe doesn’t think so. “In many ways, even a computer as advanced as Watson lacks the capabilities packed into every human skull. What Watson really shows is the extent of human ingenuity, in the form of its makers.”

Corporate governance remains weak in Japan, partly because shareholders are too passive. “Japan Inc. has been run, and overseen, by corporate insiders, with shareholders’ interests often taking a back seat.” Among especially bad practices, the Journal points to low returns, cross-shareholdings and “the massive dilutive, follow-on issues that lack compelling equity stories—many of them to make up for mismanagement.”

There has been little success in slowing climate change or reducing carbon emissions. Sweeping new international agreements are elusive. The Economist believes it’s time to look at smaller measures that can gain quick agreement. For example, the industrial gas HFC-134 could be eliminated under the existing Montreal protocol. Substitutes are already available for this gas which “delivers more than 1,000 times more warming than carbon dioxide, mass for mass.” Banning HFC-134 would make a difference and could be done quickly. Success in smaller agreements may even “help build the trust, ambition and momentum needed to get further on deals to reduce carbon-dioxide emissions.”

Given the unprecedented scale of Bernard Madoff’s Ponzi scheme, investigators and lawyers are probing whether anyone else knew about the fraud. Fingers are being pointed at institutions including JPMorgan Chase. In a private interview, Maddoff told the New York Times that some hedge funds and banks turned a blind eye to his activities. “They had to know…. But the attitude was sort of, ‘If you’re doing something wrong, we don’t want to know.’”

Given the unprecedented scale of Bernard Madoff’s Ponzi scheme, investigators and lawyers are probing whether anyone else knew about the fraud. Fingers are being pointed at institutions including JPMorgan Chase. In a private interview, Maddoff told the New York Times that some hedge funds and banks turned a blind eye to his activities. “They had to know…. But the attitude was sort of, ‘If you’re doing something wrong, we don’t want to know.’”

India’s Prime Minister Manmohan Singh is considered an upright and squeaky clean politician. Yet he has failed to trample out corruption. The telecom scandal revealed crony capitalism cost the government about $40 billion. The Financial Times expects more. “When you are prime minister of India, it is not enough to be clean yourself…. By failing to stamp down on graft, even among close associates, Mr Singh is frittering away the chance to modernise the country.”